Ragland Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Some buildings in Texas just refuse to stay small. The Ragland Building in Nolan County is one of them.

Community leader R.A. Ragland, born in 1858, had this structure put up in 1901. One story.

Hand-hewed limestone, laid out in a random pattern. Now, hand-hewed limestone is not the work of a man who's thinking small, mind you. That's the work of a man who's thinking permanent.

And sure enough, five years later, in 1906, Ragland came back and said, one floor is not going to be enough. Up went a second story. Just like that, the building doubled.

Charles McFarland bought the place in 1909, and by then that building had already seen more life packed into its walls than most structures see in a lifetime. Down on the first floor, the hammers rang out from a blacksmith shop, and a hardware store did its steady business. But the second floor, now that's where things got interesting.

That upper level played host to the law office and abstract company of Ragland and R.C. Crane. It held an early Western Union Telegraph office, a cotton exporter, doctors, and a sanatorium.

One floor, all of that. R.A. Ragland passed in 1938, but the building he raised out of hand-hewed limestone in 1901 was still standing, still telling the story.

Some stones just hold.

What the marker says

Community leader R.A. Ragland (1858-1938) had this structure erected in 1901 as a one-story building with a random pattern of hand-hewed limestone. He added a second floor in 1906. Charles McFarland bought the building in 1909. The first floor has housed a blacksmith shop and hardware store. The second floor has held the law office and abstract company of Ragland and R.C. Crane, an early Western Union Telegraph office, cotton exporter, doctors, and a sanatorium. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1979.